The Anxious “China Hunters” of the Nineteenth Century
After the Civil War, some elite women became obsessed with collecting antique china, the better to connect themselves to illustrious histories.
The Midcentury Women Who Played With Dollhouses
How to sell white, middle-class women on suburban domesticity after World War II? Tantalize them with dollhouse-like models of new cabinets.
The Text That Stoked Modern Antisemitism
What's the history of the vicious The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?
How Influenza Devastated the Navajo Community in 1918
Like COVID-19, the 1918 influenza pandemic moved swiftly through the Navajo community, but firsthand accounts of the devastation are rare.
The Mormon Fans of Europe’s 1848 Revolutions
As the crowned heads of Europe shuddered at the unrest in the streets, members of the Latter-Day Saints movement cheered.
Do Series Books Turn Kids Off Adult-Approved Novels?
Goosebumps. The Baby-Sitters Club. Even Nancy Drew. In the 1990s, concerned educators wondered if series books were luring kids away from "literature."
Remembering Craig Gilbert and An American Family
The twelve-part documentary chronicling a family's dissolution was one of the most talked-about TV shows of the past fifty years.
Why Modern Women Got All Colonial in the 1920s
Flappers stole the headlines for their hemlines and wild ways. But were some of them stitching samplers in the meantime?
How “Female Fiends” Challenged Victorian Ideals
At a time when questions about women's rights in marriage roiled society, women readers took to the pages of cheap books about husband-murdering wives.
Is Emma Really the Heroine of Emma?
Jane Austen gave her character Emma Woodhouse plenty of off-putting qualities. So does she even deserve her popularity?